Greek: hosautosdekaitopneumasunantilambanetai (3SPMI)
teastheneiahemon;togarti proseuchometha
kaqodei (2SPAI)
oukoidamen, (3SRAI)
allaautotopneumahuperentugchanei (3SPAI)
stenagmoisalaletois;Amplified:
﻿﻿So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our
weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it
worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our
supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and
groanings too deep for utterance.﻿ (Amplified
Bible - Lockman)NLT: And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don't
even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the
Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in
words. (NLT
- Tyndale House)Phillips: The Spirit of God not only maintains this hope within
us, but helps us in our present limitations. For example, we do not
know how to pray worthily as sons of God, but his Spirit within us is
actually praying for us in those agonising longings which never find
words. (Phillips:
Touchstone)Wuest: And in like manner also the Spirit lends us a
helping hand with reference to our weakness, for the particular. thing
that we should pray for according to what is necessary in the nature
of the case, we do not know with an absolute knowledge; but the Spirit
himself comes to our rescue by interceding with unutterable groanings.
(Eerdmans) Young's Literal: And, in like manner also, the
Spirit doth help our weaknesses; for, what we may pray for, as it
behoveth us, we have not known, but the Spirit himself doth make
intercession for us with groanings unutterable,

What does in the same
way refer to? In context the comparison appears to be between the way
hope sustains us in the midst of present sufferings (v18-25) so (in the
same way) the Spirit sustains us by personally aiding us in our weakness. The
idea is that we have more than enough resources to keep us going in the
midst of earthly trials.

MacArthur
explains that...

In the same way refers back to
the groans of the creation (see note Romans 8:22)
and of believers (see note Romans 8:23)
for redemption from the corruption and defilement of sin. Here Paul
reveals the immeasurably comforting truth that the Holy Spirit comes
alongside us and all creation in groaning for God’s ultimate day of
restoration and His eternal reign of righteousness. (MacArthur,
J: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Press)

Hodge
agrees writing that "Not only does hope thus cheer and
support the suffering believer, but In the same way, the Spirit helps us
in our weakness. As hope sustains, so, in the same way, the Spirit also
does. Not that the type of help is the same, but simply that they do
both assist us. (Romans
8 - Hodge's Commentary on Romans, Ephesians and First Corinthians)

And so as the
creation and believers both groan for ultimate restoration, the Holy
Spirit does as well.

Helps (4878)
(sunantilambanomai from
sun/syn= together, + antilambáno
= to support, help) mans to take hold of anything with another, to take
part in his burden or work, and thus to give help. It speaks of the action of a person coming to
another’s aid by taking hold over against that person, of the load he is
carrying. The person helping does not take the entire load, but helps
the other person in his endeavor. The word is used where Martha says to
the Lord Jesus concerning Mary

But Martha was distracted with all
her preparations; and she came up to Him, and said, "Lord, do You not
care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell
her to help me. (Lk 10:40)

Comment: It is a beautiful
word -- to take hold oneself at his end of the task together with one

One could translate, “Bid her lend me a helping hand,” the idea being
that Martha would continue preparing the meal but needed Mary to help
her. Just so, the Holy Spirit indwelling the saint, comes to the
aid of that saint in his or her spiritual distresses and difficulties,
not by taking over the responsibility for them and giving the
saint an automatic deliverance without any effort on his or her part,
but by lending a helping hand, allowing the saint to work out his
problems and overcome the saint's difficulties, with His help.

A. T. Robertson says "The Holy Spirit lays hold of our weaknesses along with (sun) us and
carries His part of the burden facingus (anti) as if two men were
carrying a log, one at each end.

Weakness (769)
(astheneia
[word study]) means literally without strength and speaks of the
state of incapacity to do or experience something. The infirmities here
are not physical but spiritual. This refers to our human limitation due
to sinfulness which produces a weakness that consists, at least in part,
in that “we do not know what we ought to pray.”

For we do not have a high priest who
cannot sympathize with our weaknesses (astheneia), but One
who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. (see note
Hebrews 4:15)

Wuest
explains that...

The weakness spoken of here is
defined by the context which speaks of prayer, one of the things in the
spiritual realm in which our weakness needs His power. The infirmities
here therefore are, not physical, but spiritual. The weakness spoken of
here is the inability of the saint to know what to pray for. We do know
what the general objects of prayer are. But we do not know what the
specific, detailed objects of prayer in any given emergency or situation
are. (Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)

What kind of weakness? We are
weak in many ways, but in this passage the apostle Paul is specific
about the particular weakness he is addressing—our prayer lives. We are
weak when it comes to prayer. In what way? Well, we are weak in many
ways, but here again Paul has something specific in mind. We are weak in
our ability to know what we should ask. Many times we really don’t know
what we should specifically pray for. We are not omniscient. We don’t
know everything, nor can we see into the future. So we don’t know
whether the things we’re asking for will turn out good or bad for us.

An old story illustrates: A Chinese
gentleman lived on the border of China and Mongolia. In those days,
there was constant conflict and strife along the perimeter. The man had
a beautiful horse. One day, she leaped over the corral, raced down the
road, crossed the border, and was captured by the Mongolians. His
friends came to comfort him. “That’s bad news,” they said sadly. “What
makes you think it’s bad news?” asked the Chinese gentleman. “Maybe it’s
good news.” A few days later the mare came bolting into his corral,
bringing with it a massive stallion. His friends crowded around. “That’s
good news!” they cried. “What makes you think it’s good news?” he asked.
“Maybe it is bad news.” Later, his son, while riding the stallion and
trying to break it, was thrown off and broke his leg. “That’s bad news,”
cried the friends. “What makes you think it is bad news?” asked the
Chinese gentleman. “Maybe it’s good news.” One week later, war broke out
with Mongolia, and a Chinese general came through, drafting all the
young men. All later perished, except for the young man who couldn’t go
because his leg was broken. The man said to his friends, “You see, the
things you thought were bad turned out good; and the things you thought
were good turned out bad.”

And thus it is with us. We don’t know
if the things we want will really be good for us, or bad. We can’t see
the future. That’s why James tells to us to pray, saying, “If it be thy
will. . . .” But God does know the future. He is Alpha and Omega, the
First and the Last. He knows the end from the beginning, and He knows
how all things will turn out. Verse 26 says that the Holy Spirit prays
for us according to the will of God with intensity, with groanings that
words cannot express. And God answers the Holy Spirit’s pleas on our
behalf. The result is Romans 8:28! As the Holy Spirit prays for us, God
answers His prayers, therefore all the things turn out for our good in
the unfolding providence of the Lord. (Nelson's
Annual Preacher's Sourcebook: 2002 edition. Nashville: Thomas Nelson
Publishers)

Hudson Taylor once said:

Ill that God blesses is our good
And unblest good is ill.
And all is right that seems most wrong
If it be his sweet will.

><> ><> ><>

Spurgeon
wrote...

Never give up praying, even when
Satan suggests that prayer is in vain. Pray in his teeth. “﻿Pray without
ceasing﻿” (﻿1Thess. 5:17﻿). If the heavens are brass and your prayer
only echoes above your head, pray on! If month after month your prayer
appears to have miscarried, if you have had no answer, continue to draw
close to the Lord. Do not abandon the mercy seat for any reason. If it
is a good thing that you have been asking for, and if you are sure that
it is according to the divine will, wait, tarry, pray, weep, plead,
wrestle, and agonize until you get what you are praying for.

If your heart is cold, do not wait
until your heart warms. Pray your soul into heat with the help of the
ever-blessed Holy Spirit, who helps in our weakness, who makes
intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered (﻿Ro 8:26﻿).

Never cease prayer for any reason. If
the philosopher tells you that every event is fixed and that prayer
cannot possibly change anything, go on praying. If you cannot reply to
every difficulty that man suggests, resolve to be obedient to the divine
will. “﻿Pray without ceasing.﻿” Never, never, never renounce the habit
of prayer or your confidence in its power.

><> ><> ><>

Winslow
writes...

The word here rendered helps
properly means to take part with. It implies, not merely sympathy with,
but a personal participation in our infirmity. The Spirit helps our
infirmities by sharing them with us. Now take the general infirmities of
the believer–infirmities which, unaided by another and a superior power,
must crush and overwhelm–and trace the help thus afforded by the Spirit.
We are taught to adore the love of the Father, from where each rill of
mercy has its rise. We delight to dwell upon the love of the Son,
through whose channel all redemption-blessing flows. And shall we
overlook the love of the Holy Spirit? Shall we forget His comforts, His
grace, His succourings? Forbid it, oh eternal and blessed Spirit! Your
essential Deity–Your personal subsistence–Your tender love–Your Divine
power–Your efficacious grace–Your sovereign mercy–Your infinite
patience–Your exquisite sympathy–all demand our deepest love, and awake
our loftiest praise.

But how is this sympathy of the Spirit expressed? Seeing the soul bound
with an infirmity, all His compassion is awakened. Approaching, He takes
hold of the burden. Constrained by a love which no thought can conceive,
moved by a tenderness no tongue can describe, He advances, and places
the power of His Godhead beneath the pressure–and thus He helps our
infirmity. Do you doubt this? We summon you as a witness to its truth.
Why are you not a ruin and a wreck? Why has not your infirmity long
since dethroned reason, and annihilated faith, and extinguished hope,
and clad all the future with the pall of despair? Why have you ridden
serene and secure upon the crest of the billow, smiling calmly upon the
dark and yawning surges dashing and foaming around you? Why have you,
when your heart has been overwhelmed, found relief in a sigh, in a tear,
in an uplifted glance, in one thought of God? Oh, it has been because
the Spirit, all silent and invisible, was near to you, sympathizing,
helping, bearing your infirmities. Because around you the power of His
Deity was placed. And when you have staggered and turned pale, and have
well near given up all for lost, resigning yourself to the broodings of
despair, that Spirit has approached, all-loving and powerful, and
helped, by sharing your infirmity. Some appropriate and precious promise
has been sealed upon your heart–some clear and soothing view of Christ
has been presented to your eye–some gentle whisper of love has breathed
upon your ear–and you have been helped. The pressure has been lightened,
the grief has been assuaged, the weakness has been strengthened, and you
have risen superior to the infirmity that bowed you to the dust. Oh, it
was the Spirit who helped you. Grieved, and wounded, and slighted a
thousand times over though He has been, receiving at your hands the
unkindest requital for the tenderest love, yet when your infirmity bowed
you to the earth, and the sword entered your soul, He drew near,
forgetting all your base ingratitude, and administered wine to your
dejected spirit, and oil to your bleeding wound, and placed beneath you
the encircling arms of His everlasting love. (Octavius Winslow. Daily
Walking with God)

><> ><> ><>

Philpot writes that...

In all our prayers, in all our
approaches to the throne of grace, our mercy and wisdom will be to seek
to possess the mind of the Spirit; to desire to know the will of God,
and do it; to look up more believingly and continually to the Lord
Jesus, that he himself would teach and guide us; that he would by his
Spirit and grace conform us more inwardly and outwardly to his suffering
image; that he would grant unto us to know him more, and serve him
better; that our prayers may day by day be more and more fervent,
earnest, and sincere, more spiritual, more in accordance with the will
of God; that thus they may be more and more manifested as the
interceding breath of the Spirit of God in our hearts, and as such may
bring more clear and evident answers down.

Pray for the manifestation of Christ to your soul, for a revelation of
the Person, blood, righteousness, and love of Jesus; seek to have your
signs and evidences of divine life more cleared up; your Ebenezers and
tokens for good more brightly shone upon; your doubts and fears more
plainly dispelled, and a fuller and sweeter assurance of personal
interest given in the finished work of Christ. Desire also to have the
promises applied to your heart, the word of God brought with divine
power into your conscience, and a living faith raised up and drawn forth
to mix with the truth which you read or hear.

Beg, as the Lord may enable, for
submission, patience, resignation, brokenness, contrition, humility,
godly sorrow for sin, heavenly affections, and that sweet spirituality
of mind which is life and peace. Above all, seek an inward assurance
that your prayers are heard and accepted, and then watch for the answer.
This will give you the surest and best of all evidences that the blessed
Spirit is himself interceding for you with groanings which cannot be
uttered. (J. C. Philpot. Daily Portions)

FOR WE DO NOT KNOW HOWTO PRAY AS WE SHOULD (as we must - speaks of necessity): to gar ti proseuchometha (1PAMS)
katho dei (2SPAI) ouk oidamen (3SRAI): (Matthew 20:22; Luke
11:1-13; James 4:3)

The NASB translators understood Paul to be saying

We do not know how
to pray as we should

The NAS
thus implies we are ignorant concerning the proper
method and procedure in prayer.

The NIV renders it...

We do not know what we ought to pray for

Here the ignorance
is in regard to the content of the prayer. MacDonald interprets
it along the lines of the NIV rendering noting that we...

We do not know how to pray as
we should. We pray selfishly, ignorantly, narrowly. But once again the
Spirit comes alongside to assist us in our weakness, interceding for us
with groanings which cannot find expression. In this verse it is the
Spirit who groans and not we who groan, though that is also true.
There is mystery here. We are peering into the unseen, spiritual realm
where a great Person and great forces are at work on our behalf. And
although we cannot understand it all, we can take infinite encouragement
from the fact that a groan may sometimes be the most spiritual prayer. (MacDonald,
W & Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson)

The Greek text permits
either the NAS or the NIV interpretation, though it favors the NAS.

The basic principle of effective praying is that it must be in harmony
with the will of God (the "what" more than the "how") to be effective,
John clearly teaching that..

this is the confidence which we have
before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He
hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know
that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. (1John 5:14, 15)

However what the
will of God is may be hard for us to
ascertain in a given situation. In those situations, the Holy Spirit
comes to our aid by interceding for us.

Vincent
agrees adding that this verse is...

Not with reference to the form
of prayer, but to the circumstances: in proportion to the need.

Vine also favors the what over the how of prayer in
this passage writing that...

Alford adds that "The Holy Spirit of God dwelling in us, knowing our wants better
than we, Himself pleads in our prayers, raising us to higher and holier
desires than we can express in words, which can only find utterance in sighings
and aspirations. (Romans
8 Commentary)

God wants us to ask, but there are times when the situation is simply
too complex or we are too distraught that we don't know what to
pray for. We have all experienced situations in which we wondered how to
pray specifically. We didn't know what would be best and in the will of
God for the specific issue at hand.

Hodge sums
this up writing that "This is said to illustrate and
confirm the previous general declaration; it is an example of the way in
which the Spirit helps us. “He helps us in our weaknesses, for he
teaches us how to pray, dictating to us our supplications,” etc. Our
need for this help comes from our ignorance. We do not know what to pray
for. We cannot tell what is really best for us. Pagan philosophers gave
this as a reason why men ought not to pray! How miserable their
condition is when compared with ours! Instead of our ignorance putting a
seal on our lips and leaving our hearts to break, the Spirit gives voice
to our desires in a language which is heard and understood by God. As we
do not know how to pray, the Spirit teaches us. (Hodge,
Charles: Commentary on Romans)

Intercedes (5241)
(huperentugchano from hupér = for, on behalf of +
entugchano = entreat, make intercession, bring a petition to a king
on behalf of someone, ask for something with urgency and intensity)
means to intercede for or in the behalf of someone or to plead for
someone. It is a picturesque word of rescue by one who ‘happens on’ one
who is in trouble, and ‘in his behalf’ (huper) pleads ‘with unuttered
groanings’ or with ‘sighs that baffle words'.

The whole creation "groans" (Ro
8:22-note),
we ourselves "groan within ourselves" (Ro 8:23-note)
and the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings (Romans 8:26).

Groanings (4726)
(stenagmos from
stenazo= to groan) refers to intense, yet
inaudible, sighing. We who believe in God, the entire creation of God,
and God Himself, are all yearning for the day when there shall be "no
more curse" (Rev 22:3-note).

Newell writes...

Groanings which cannot be
uttered-expresses at once the vastness of our need, our utter ignorance
and inability, and the infinite concern of the blessed indwelling Spirit
for us. "Groanings"-what a word! and to be used of the Spirit of the
Almighty Himself! How shallow is our appreciation of what is done, both
by Christ for us, and by the Spirit within us! (Expository
Notes Verse by Verse)

There are some who say Paul by groanings Paul is referring to a special manifestation of
the Spirit, such as tongues or ecstatic cries that come from the heart,
but that this is not what he is teaching. In fact, he
specifically says that the praying of the Spirit is too deep for words
or utterance and so is unuttered and cannot be expressed. It is felt
only in the heart and never comes to the lips as a verbal expression. In
short, we should not confuse these groanings with praying in tongues. This
passage promises all Christians God's help, not just those who have (or
had) the
gift of tongues. Further Scripture never connects the gift of
tongues with intercessory prayer. This verse seems to be saying that the
Holy Spirit prays for us, not that He prays through us to the Father.

Moo writes

I take it that Paul is saying, then, that our failure to know God's will
and consequent inability to petition God specifically and assuredly is
met by God's Spirit, who himself expresses to God those intercessory
petitions that perfectly match the will of God. When we do not know what
to pray for—yes, even when we pray for things that are not best for
us—we need not despair, for we can depend on the Spirit's ministry of
perfect intercession on our behalf.

The Father understands the Spirit's intercession for the saints even
though we do not hear it. We can know that His intercession is effective
in securing God's help for us because the Spirit prays in harmony with
God's will. Thus God Himself by the Spirit comes to our aid whenever we
need help. He also assures us in His Word that we will get assistance
from the Father. The consequence of this promise should be that when we
feel frustrated about our inability to pray about a particular need we
can relax. We can have confidence that our compassionate God understands
just how we feel and what we want, and He will respond according to His
will.

Stedman observes that...

There are three groans in this passage. Nature is groaning, we are
groaning, and now the Spirit is groaning with words which cannot be
uttered. This passage helps us in our understanding of prayer. The
apostle says that we do not know what to pray for as we ought. We lack
wisdom. I want to point out immediately that this is not an
encouragement to cease praying. Some people think this means that if we
don't know how to pray as we ought, and if the Spirit is going to pray
for us anyway, then we don't need to pray. But that would contradict
many other passages of Scripture, especially James 4:2, which says. "You
have not because you ask not," {Jas 4:2b NIV}. God does want us to pray,
and we are constantly encouraged to pray. Jesus taught on prayer. In
Philippians 4:6, Paul tells us that we are never to be troubled or
anxious, but in everything, with prayer and supplication, we are to let
our requests be made known to God.

There are many times when we do know what to pray for. But there will
come times when we won't know what to pray for. My wife and I had a time
like that last night. We knew something was wrong, but we didn't know
how to analyze it, or how to explain it, or how to ask God to do
something about it. We were without wisdom. It is at that time, the
apostle tells us, that the Spirit of God within us voices, without
words, his request to the Father.

I have always been amazed at people who emphasize the gift of tongues
and take this verse as proof that the Spirit prays in tongues through
us. This verse could not mean that. Paul tells us that this praying of
the Spirit is done with groans which words cannot express. Now, tongues
are words, words of other languages. If this referred to the gift of
tongues, it would merely be putting into other languages the feelings of
our heart. But this passage has nothing to do with that. This describes
the groans of the Spirit within, so deep and so impossible to verbalize
that we cannot say anything at all. We just feel deeply. The apostle
says that when that happens, it is the Spirit of God who is praying. The
Spirit is putting our prayer into a form which God the Father, who
searches the heart, understands. The Spirit is asking for something
concerning the situation that we are trying to pray about (Romans 8:18-28: Agony
& Ecstasy)

As the indwelling Holy Spirit alone knows how to interpret our needs, He
makes His intercession within us, inspiring our yearnings, and thus
fulfilling His gracious function as the other comforter (or advocate)
whom the Lord Jesus promised, a comforter of like character with
Himself. Since we know not what to pray for apart from His help, we are
exhorted to pray “at all seasons in the Spirit” (Ep6:18).

Creation groans, we groan, and the Holy Spirit groans. But the Spirit
groans within us, and in doing so strengthens us to bear our trials with
confidence and courage, and at the same time directs our hearts to God.
These groanings do not necessarily find expression in actual speech, but
they are effective with God. Human language is, it would seem, not
essential to Divine intercession.

McGee has a somewhat humorous
note writing that...

Years ago when the late Dr. A. C.
Gaebelein was speaking, a very enthusiastic member of the congregation
kept interrupting with loud amens. That annoyed Dr. Gaebelein. Finally,
he told him, “Brother, the Scripture says that the Spirit maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered—so don’t you
utter them if it’s the Spirit of God.” We didn’t even know how we ought
to pray; but the Spirit of God will make intercession with groanings
which cannot be uttered. Have you gone to God sometimes in prayer when
you actually did not know what to pray for? All you could do was just go
to Him and say, “Father.” You could not ask anything because you didn’t
know what to ask for. At times like this the Spirit “helpeth our
infirmities.” How wonderful that is! (McGee,
J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson)

Here is a helpful note from Believer's Study Bible:

Frequently a disciple confronts difficulties so
insurmountable that he cannot even approach prayer skillfully. He knows
that he must approach God, but he has already said all that he knows to
say to God. In those instances, the promise is that the Holy Spirit
"makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Some
have interpreted this verse as arguing for "prayer tongues." However,
close examination reveals that the believer is not speaking at all. The
Holy Spirit is making the intercession. Moreover, the precise words in
Greek are stenagmois alaletois, "groanings which cannot be uttered."
Literally, the words might be rendered "unspoken sighings." In
other words, the communication is nonverbal, involving no speaking of
any kind. (Criswell,
W A. Believer's Study Bible: New King James Version. 1991. Thomas Nelson)

Wayne Barber
has this note on Romans 8:26...

First he shows us the Spirit’s
purpose in us: "And in the same way the Spirit also helps our
weakness." He is there, in us to help us in our weakness." Notice that
"weakness" is singular—which means he is referring to a specific
weakness. We are weak, and feeble apart from Him.

"And in the same way," or in "like
manner," says that what the Spirit is doing in us corresponds to what
precedes. Just as we wait out the time longing for the event that is
coming, the Spirit is there to help us through it.

"The Spirit also helps our weakness."
The idea is that He lays hold on our weakness, our inability. The word
translated here as "helps" is the word sunantilambano.
Lambano means to take, or to hold, but the first two words Greek
words give much insight to the word.

Sun,
as we have already seen, means a union, or together with. You may
remember we used the illustration of making biscuits. Once you have
mixed all the ingredients together and then baked them, it is impossible
to separate the ingredients again. This is the "union" of the word
sun. So, along with us He, the Holy Spirit, takes hold of the burden
in order to help. We have our part, which is to wait hopefully, choosing
to bear up under whatever comes our way (Ro 8:25: "But if we hope for
what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it"), and He
has his part.

Anti
means facing us. Imagine a man struggling to move a heavy log. Along
comes another man, who picks up the other end to help. One is on each
end of the log, and they face each other as they work together to move
the log. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is there with us to do His
part in helping us in our weakness.

Second, Paul shows us our problem.
Where is the target area of our weakness? Actually, there seems to
me to be two things linked together. In Ro 8:18-25, the very need for
the Roman church to be exhorted to trust God in suffering and to choose
to bear up under whatever comes because God is in control, shows us that
evidently they weren’t doing so good. Just like us. We know that God is
in control, but we would rather blame somebody else and have a "pity
party."

And coupled with this weakness is our
inability to pray as we should: "for we do not know how to pray as we
should." This is where the Holy Spirit takes hold of our situation with
us, and does what we cannot do. We say, "God I trust you, but I need
your help, I don’t even know what to pray." And the Holy Spirit picks up
the other end of the log that we cannot carry.

It is not as if we do not pray, but
we do not know how to pray or what to pray, because we don’t know all
that God is doing in a given trial that we are going through. Our
prayers, like in James, so often go amiss. We always pray in light of
what we think is best for us. But, we don’t know how to pray.

So the purpose of the Holy Spirit is
to help us, to pick up the end of the log we cannot carry. The problem
is that we do not always look at life the way God does and when we pray
we don’t know how or even what to ask.

But, the power, the ability of the
Holy Spirit is that He knows exactly how to pray and what to ask for us:
"but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for
words." Oh, this gets good. The Holy Spirit knows exactly what is going
on in our lives and knows exactly what to pray, for He is God. The Holy
Spirit when He sees we do not know how to pray, immediately steps in and
prays for us.

Most of the time, when we are in the
midst of suffering, we are inclined to pray for our problem’s removal.
Waiting and believing God that He is using this for greater purposes
seems too difficult. Even the apostle Paul prayed three times that God
would remove the thorn in his flesh. The answer he received should have
been what he prayed—No. But, the Holy Spirit makes good these
deficiencies in our prayers.

"But the Spirit Himself intercedes."
The verb is in the present tense. This is at any time, all the time when
it is needed. He intercedes "for us." The meaning here is that the Holy
Spirit happens upon us and acts in behalf of us. The Holy Spirit works
all that is "spiritual" in us, even our praying.

The verse goes on to say "with
groanings too deep for words." Oh, the many views on this verse. Some
say this is speaking in tongues. But in no way is this some mystical
prayer language that a believer says he has. The word "groanings" is
that which no language of any kind could ever express. These groanings
are the communication between the Spirit and the Father.

Notice the verse says "the Spirit
Himself" intercedes. Some say this is when the Holy Spirit takes our
groanings and teaches us what to pray because we don’t know how. Prayer
certainly is initiated by God and therefore the Spirit would be the one
to lead us in prayer. All of us have experienced this. But, my problem
is that I wonder if what Paul is saying ever reaches our consciousness.
This is not us saying anything; this is communication in the Godhead.

What I get out of this is that the
context has been speaking about believers going through suffering, pain,
and tribulation. It has also stated who it is referring to: "those who
walk according to the Spirit." In Ro 8:28, it says to those who "love
God and are called according to His purpose." When I go through the deep
dark valleys of suffering, when my heart yearns for the will of the
Father, then I know that He cares so much for me, that my groanings
become His as He takes them and prays the perfect will of God for me
when I haven’t got a clue what to ask.

Think about a lawyer who prepares a
case for court. He must discern if the client truly is telling the
truth, then takes all the information given him, and puts it as it
should be. Then he takes it to the trial lawyer who presents it to the
judge. We have double comfort in the fact that the context of chapter 8
shows us that we have two lawyers. One is the Holy Spirit, and the other
is the Lord Jesus. Verse 34: "who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus
is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of
God, who also intercedes for us."

When I am compelled, through
circumstances, to pray, I am suffering and in pain, not knowing how, but
wanting God’s will to be done. It is then the Holy Spirit immediately
picks up the burden, and takes my properly prepared case to our Lord
Jesus who presents it to the Father. (Romans 8:26-29
Resource of the Holy Spirit)

><> ><> ><>

An Exercise of Worship -
Prayer is more than asking things from God. It is an exercise in the
worship of God, to extol His name and to offer thanks for all His
benefits. The child of God is assured that in prayer he is approaching a
throne of grace, not a throne of judgment (He 4:16-

Since these rich gifts Thy bounty
has bestowed Have brought me more than I had asked or thought.

Giver of good, so answer each
request

With Thine own giving, better
than my best.

><>><>><>

F B Meyer (Our Daily Homily) on groaning in
Romans 8...

THERE is a
threefold groaning here.

Creation
groans (Ro 8:22).--The sufferings of the dumb animals, under the
brutal tyranny of man; in hard service; in the torture chambers of
vivisectionists; to yield pleasure; to give food; or to provide
dress--must fill the ear of Heaven with groans. The sighs of myriads of
acres, condemned to bear the poisonous poppy or the barley for the
manufacture of spirit, must be heard across the broad expanse of space.
There is a discord, an oppression, a vanity in the universe around us,
which constantly betrays the secret oppression of evil. Goethe said that
Nature seemed to him to be like a captive maiden crying aloud for
release.

The saints
groan (Ro 8:23).--We wait for our adoption, for the manifestation of
our sonship, for the redemption of our bodies from the last remnants of
the fall; and as we wait, we groan beneath the pressure of the present,
the weight of mortality, and with eager desire for the blessed advent of
the Lord.

The Spirit
groans (Ro 8:26).--The pressure of sin and sorrow in our world is
heavy for Him to bear, and He sighs bitterly, as Jesus did when He stood
face to face with the grave of His dead friend.

But these
groans portend life, not death. They are full of hope, not despair. They
are the pangs of birth, not the throes of death. Out of the agony of the
present the new heavens and earth are being born.

"Unto you is given
To watch for the coming of His feet
Who is the glory of our blessed Heaven.
The work and watching will be very sweet,
Even in an earthly home;
And in such an hour as you think not
He will come."

><> ><> ><>

Philpot writes...

We know not what we should
pray for as we ought. How often do we find and feel this to be our
case. Darkness covers our mind; ignorance pervades our soul; unbelief
vexes our spirit; guilt troubles our conscience; a crowd of evil
imaginations, or foolish or worse than foolish wanderings distract our
thoughts; Satan hurls in thick and fast his fiery darts; a dense cloud
is spread over the mercy-seat; infidelity whispers its vile suggestions,
until, amid all this rabble throng, such confusion and bondage prevail
that words seem idle breath, and prayer to the God of heaven but empty
mockery.

In this scene of confusion and distraction, when all seems going to the
wreck, how kind, how gracious is it in the blessed Spirit to come, as it
were, to the rescue of the poor bewildered saint, and to teach him how
to pray and what to pray for. He is therefore said "to help our
infirmities," for these evils of which we have been speaking are not
willful, deliberate sins, but wretched infirmities of the flesh. He
helps, then, our infirmities by subduing the power and prevalence of
unbelief; by commanding in the mind a solemn calm; by rebuking and
chasing away Satan and his fiery darts; by awing the soul with a
reverential sense of the power and presence of God; by presenting Jesus
before our eyes as the Mediator at the right hand of the Father; by
raising up and drawing forth faith upon his Person and work, blood and
righteousness; and, above all, by himself interceding for us and in us
"with groanings which cannot be uttered." When the soul is favored thus
to pray, its petitions are a spiritual sacrifice, and its cries enter
the ears of the Lord Almighty, for "He that searches the hearts knows
what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the
saints according to the will of God" (Ro 8:27; James 5:4; 1Peter
2:5). (J. C. Philpot. Daily Words for Zion's Wayfarers)

><> ><> ><>

Alexander Maclaren has the following sermon
message...

THE INTERCEDING SPIRIT -
‘The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which
cannot be uttered.’— ROMANS 8:26 .

Pentecost was a transitory sign of a perpetual gift. The tongues of fire
and the rushing mighty wind, which were at first the most conspicuous
results of the gifts of the Spirit, tongues, and prophecies, and gifts
of healing, which were to the early Church itself and to onlookers
palpable demonstrations of an indwelling power, were little more lasting
than the fire and the wind. Does anything remain? This whole great
chapter is Paul’s triumphant answer to such a question. The Spirit of
God dwells in every believer as the source of his true life, is for him
‘the Spirit of adoption’ and witnesses with his spirit that he is a
child of God, and a joint-heir with Christ. Not only does that Spirit
co-operate with the human spirit in this witness-bearing, but the verse,
of which our text is a part, points to another form of co-operation: for
the word rendered in the earlier part of the verse ‘helpeth’ in the
original suggests more distinctly that the Spirit of God in His
intercession for us works in association with us.

First, then—I. The Spirit’s intercession is not carried on apart from us.

Much modern hymnology goes wrong in this point, that it represents the
Spirit’s intercession as presented in heaven rather than as taking place
within the personal being of the believer. There is a broad distinction
carefully observed throughout Scripture between the representations of
the work of Christ and that of the Spirit of Christ. The former in its
character and revelation and attainment was wrought upon earth, and in
its character of intercession and bestowment of blessings is discharged
at the right hand of God in heaven; the whole of the Spirit’s work, on
the other hand, is wrought in human spirits here. The context speaks of
intercession expressed in ‘groanings which cannot be uttered,’ and
which, unexpressed though they are, are fully understood ‘by Him who
searches the heart.’ Plainly, therefore, these groanings come from human
hearts, and as plainly are the Divine Spirit’s voicing them.

II. The Spirit’s intercession in our spirits consists in our own
divinely-inspired longings.

The Apostle has just been speaking of another groaning within ourselves,
which is the expression of ‘the earnest expectation’ of ‘the adoption,
to wit, the redemption of our body’; and he says that that longing will
be the more patient the more it is full of hope. This, then, is Paul’s
conception of the normal attitude of a Christian soul; but that attitude
is hard to keep up in one’s own strength, because of the distractions of
time and sense which are ever tending to disturb the continuity and
fixity of that onward look, and to lead us rather to be satisfied with
the gross, dull present. That redemption of the body, with all which it
implies and includes, ought to be the supreme object to which each
Christian heart should ever be turning, and Christian prayers should be
directed. But our own daily experience makes us only too sure that such
elevation above, and remoteness from earthly thoughts, with all their
pettinesses and limitations, is impossible for us in our own strength.
As Paul puts it here, ‘We know not what to pray for’; nor can we fix and
focus our desires, nor present them ‘as we ought.’ It is to this
weakness and incompleteness of our desires and prayers that the help of
the Spirit is directed. He strengthens our longings by His own direct
operation. The more vivid our anticipations and the more steadfast our
hopes, and the more our spirits reach out to that future redemption, the
more are we bound to discern something more than human imaginings in
them, and to be sure that such visions are too good not to be true, too
solid to be only the play of our own fancy. The more we are conscious of
these experiences as our own, the more certain we shall be that in them
it is not we that speak, but ‘the Spirit of the Father that speaketh in
us.’

III. These divinely-inspired longings are incapable of full
expression.

They are shallow feelings that can be spoken. Language breaks down in
the attempt to express our deepest emotions and our truest love. For all
the deepest things in man, inarticulate utterance is the most
self-revealing. Grief can say more in a sob and a tear than in many weak
words; love finds its tongue in the light of an eye and the clasp of a
hand. The groanings which rise from the depths of the Christian soul
cannot be forced into the narrow frame-work of human language; and just
because they are unutterable are to be recognised as the voice of the
Holy Spirit.

But where amidst the Christian experience of today shall we find
anything in the least like these unutterable longings after the
redemption of the body which Paul here takes it for granted are the
experience of all Christians? There is no more startling condemnation of
the average Christianity of our times than the calm certainty with which
through all this epistle the Apostle takes it for granted that the
experience of the Roman Christians will universally endorse his
statements. Look for a moment at what these statements are. Listen to
the briefest summary of them: ‘We cry, Abba, Father’; ‘We are children
of God’; ‘We suffer with Him that we may be glorified with Him’; ‘Glory
shall be revealed to usward’; ‘We have the first-fruits of the Spirit’;
‘We ourselves groan within ourselves’; ‘By hope were we saved’; ‘We hope
for that which we see not’; ‘Then do we with patience wait for it’; ‘We
know that to them that love God all things work together for good’; ‘In
all these things we are more than conquerors’; ‘Neither death nor life.
. . nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of
God.’ He believed that in these rapturous and triumphant words he was
gathering together the experience of every Roman Christian, and would
evoke from their lips a confident ‘Amen.’ Where are the communities
to-day in whose hearing these words could be reiterated with the like
assurance? How few among us there are who know anything of these
‘groanings which cannot be uttered!’ How few among us there are whose
spirits are stretching out eager desires towards the land of perpetual
summer, like migratory birds in northern latitudes when the autumn days
are shortening and the temperature is falling!

But, however we must feel that our poor experience falls far short of
the ideal in our text, an ideal which was to some extent realised in the
early Christian Church, we must beware of taking the imperfections of
our experience as any evidence of the unreality of our Christianity.
They are a proof that we have limited and impeded the operation of the
Spirit within us. They teach us that He will not intercede ‘with
groanings which cannot be uttered’ unless we let Him speak through our
voices. Therefore, if we find that in our own consciousness there is
little to correspond to those unuttered groanings, we should take the
warning: ‘Quench not the Spirit.’ ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in
whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.’

IV. The unuttered longings are sure to be answered.

He that searcheth the heart knows the meaning of the Spirit’s unspoken
prayers; and looking into the depths of the human spirit interprets its
longings, discriminating between the mere human and partial expression
and the divinely-inspired desire which may be unexpressed. If our
prayers are weak, they are answered in the measure in which they embody
in them, though perhaps mistaken by us, a divine longing. Apparent
disappointment of our petitions may be real answers to our real prayer.
It was because Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus that He abode
still in the same place where He was, to let Lazarus die that He might
be raised again. That was the true answer to the sisters’ hope of His
immediate coming. God’s way of giving to us is to breathe within us a
desire, and then to answer the desire inbreathed. So, longing is the
prophecy of fulfilment when it is longing according to the will of God.
They who ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’ may ever be sure that
their bread shall be given them, and their water will be made sure. The
true object of our desires is often not clear to us, and so we err in
translating it into words. Let us be thankful that we pray to a God who
can discern the prayer within the prayer, and often gives the substance
of our petitions in the very act of refusing their form. (Alexander
Maclaren. Expositions of the Holy Scripture)

Greek: odeeraunon (PAPMSN)
taskardiasoiden (3SRAI)
titophronematoupneumatos,hotikatatheonentugchanei (3SPAI)
huperhagion.Amplified: ﻿And He Who searches the hearts of men knows
what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because
the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints
according to and in harmony with God’s will. (Amplified
Bible - Lockman)GWT: The one who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit has in mind.
The Spirit intercedes for God's people the way God wants him to. (GWT)NLT: And the
Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the
Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. (NLT
- Tyndale House)Phillips: And God who knows the heart's secrets understands, of
course, the Spirit's intention as he prays for those who love God. (Phillips:
Touchstone)Wuest: Moreover, He who is constantly searching our
hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because, according to God,
He continually makes intercession on behalf of the saints. (Eerdmans) Young's Literal: and He who is searching the hearts hath known
what is the mind of the Spirit, because according to God he doth
intercede for saints.

Searches (2045)
(ereunao) refers to an attempt to learn something by careful
investigation or searching. It means to search, examine, inquire,
try to find out. It is like a search men make when they are seeking
gold, or hunters when they are in earnest after game. The present tense
indicates this is God's continual activity.

It is God the Father here that is
"searching the hearts." How we used to shrink from the thought of such
Divine searching! But here God is "searching hearts" to know what is the
mind of the indwelling, holy Spirit concerning a saint, to know what the
Spirit groans for, for that saint; in order that He may supply it. (Expository
Notes)

Hearts
(2588)
(kardia) ) does not refer to the physical
organ but is always used figuratively in Scripture to refer to the seat
and center of human life. The heart is the center of the personality,
and it controls the intellect, emotions, and will. No outward obedience
is of the slightest value unless the heart turns to God.

While we often relate heart to
the emotions (e.g., “He has a broken heart”), the Bible relates it
primarily to the intellect (e.g., “Out of the heart come evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
slanders,” Matt 15:19). That’s why you must “watch
over your heart with all diligence” (Proverbs 4:23-note). In a secondary way, however, heart relates to
the will and emotions because they are influenced by the intellect. If
you are committed to something, it will affect your will, which in turn
will affect your emotions." (Drawing Near. Crossway Books) MacArthur
adds that "In most modern cultures, the heart is thought of as
the seat of emotions and feelings. But most ancients—Hebrews, Greeks,
and many others—considered the heart to be the center of
knowledge, understanding, thinking, and wisdom. The New Testament also
uses it in that way. The heart was considered to be the seat of
the mind and will, and it could be taught what the brain could never
know. Emotions and feelings were associated with the intestines, or
bowels. (MacArthur,
J: Ephesians. 1986. Chicago: Moody Press)

God the Father who searches the hearts of His saints, understands the
intent or bent of our unutterable prayers, unutterable because we do not
know the particular things we should pray for in connection with a
certain circumstance, for He knows the mind of the Holy Spirit praying
for us and in our stead in our prayers in the case of the above
mentioned items for prayer, the Holy Spirit praying according to the
plan of God for our lives.

KNOWS WHAT THE MIND OF THE SPIRIT IS: oiden (3SRAI) ti to phronema tou
pneumatos: (Psalms 38:9; 66:18,19; James 5:16)

eido) means to see with the mind’s eye, signifies a clear and
purely mental perception. It describes one as having come to a
perception or realization of something. In general eido expresses
intuitive knowledge, which ultimately belongs to God. The Trinity is a
unity in mind and purpose.

God, in His omniscience, is entirely acquainted with these
desires, even though they cannot be uttered.

Alford says
"The Holy Spirit of God dwelling in
us, knowing our wants better than we, Himself pleads in our prayers,
raising us to higher and holier desires than we can express in words,
which can only find utterance in sighings and aspirations."

Mind
(5427)
(phronema
[word study]from
phroneo [word study]= think, have a mind
set) is the what one has in mind. It is the inclination of the mind
which includes the acts of understanding and of will. Phronema
like the verb, phroneo, refers to the content
or thought patterns of the mind rather than to the mind itself. It
describes the faculty of fixing one's mind on something and thus is a
way of thinking.

Phronema - 3x in 3v - Rom 8:6,
7, 27

The argument here is from the greater to the lesser, or from
the less likely to the more likely. If God knows what is in the minds of
created beings who are qualitatively different from him and relatively
independent of him, then surely he knows what is in the mind of the
Spirit himself, who is qualitatively equal with God and one in nature
with him. What he sees in the mind of the Spirit are the nonverbal
groans that convey the contents of the saints’ uncertain and unspoken
prayers.

Wuest sums
this up commenting that...

God the Father who searches the
hearts of His saints, understands the intent or bent of our unutterable
prayers, unutterable because we do not know the particular things we
should pray for in connection with a certain circumstance, for He knows
the mind of the Holy Spirit praying for us and in our stead in our
prayers in the case of the above-mentioned items for prayer, the Holy
Spirit praying according to the plan of God for our lives. (Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)

BECAUSE HE INTERCEDES FOR THE SAINTS ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD: hoti
kata theon entugchanei (3SPAI) huper hagion: (Ro 8:34; Ephesians
2:18) (Jeremiah 29:12,13; John 14:13; James 1:5,6; 1John 3:21,22;
5:14,15)

Intercedes
(1793)
(entugchano
[word study]from en = in + tugcháno = get, obtain)
means to meet up with or to encounter and then to approach someone with
a petition. It means to make an earnest request through contact with the
one approached. To entreat (in favor or against), to make intercession,
to bring a petition to a king on behalf of someone, to ask for something
with urgency and intensity, to plead, beg, appeal to or to petition.

For
(5228)
(huper) has a number of meanings in the NT
but as used here huper means in behalf of, for the sake of, in
the place of or instead of or.

How marvelous this all is! We have two intercessors: one in Heaven—our
Lord Jesus who intercedes for our sins (v34), and one in our hearts—the
Holy Spirit himself. How greatly we are loved!

Newell feels adding the word
"will" (not in the Greek) obscures the meaning and commenting on
according to writes that this is...

an all-inclusive, blessed expression,
enwrapping us as to our salvation and blessing, wholly in Divine love
and power. We know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit makes
intercession in us, "according to God, " according to His nature (of
which we are partakers); according to our needs, which He discerns;
according to our dangers, which He foresees-according to all the desires
He has toward us. (Expository
Notes)

Wayne Barber
has this note on Romans 8:27...

The Holy Spirit is God; therefore, He
knows what to pray. Verse 27 says, "and He who searches the hearts knows
what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints
according to the will of God." "He who searches the hearts" refers to
God the Father. Look at these verses:

Matthew 6:4 (note)
"that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret
will repay you."

1 Chronicles 28:9: "As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of
your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for
the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the
thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake
Him, He will reject you forever."
Psalm 7:9: "O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but
establish the righteous; For the righteous God tries the hearts and
minds."

Proverbs 17:3: "The refining pot is for silver and the furnace
for gold, but the LORD tests hearts."

Jeremiah 11:20: "But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously,
Who tries the feelings and the heart, Let me see Thy vengeance on them,
For to Thee have I committed my cause."

Jeremiah 17:10: "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results
of his deeds."

Jeremiah 20:12: "Yet, O LORD of hosts, Thou who dost test the
righteous, Who seest the mind and the heart; Let me see Thy vengeance on
them; For to Thee I have set forth my cause."

Acts 1:24: "And they prayed, and said, ‘Thou, Lord, who knowest
the hearts of all men, show which one of these two Thou hast chosen.’"

1Thessalonians 2:4 (see note):
"but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the
gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men but God, who examines our
hearts."

3
(note)
"And I will kill her children with pestilence; and all the churches will
know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to
each one of you according to your deeds."

Well, "He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is."
In other words, the Holy Spirit and the Father are one. The Spirit
doesn’t have to ask the Father what His will is. The Holy Spirit is God.
He takes our groanings and translates them into prayer which is
according to the will of God.

God, the Holy Spirit, picks up the end of the log that we cannot carry,
and He takes our groanings and turns them into prayer which asks the
very will of God. He intercedes for the saints according to the will of
God.

Prayer is His work. We bow our heads, filled with groanings because of
our longing for the event that will one day come. As we are bowed over
with the pain and the sufferings of this life, unable to pick up the
weight of the situation, the Holy Spirit, who is God, who cares for us
beyond our understanding, quickly picks up our groanings and interprets
them into prayer that is "according to the will of God."

When you fear that your prayers are not heard, or that they are not
correct, when your heart only wants to please God, do not be
discouraged. The Holy Spirit has already stepped in and translated your
prayers according to the perfect will of God.

Oh, the resource of the Holy Spirit of God. And do you know what kind of
conclusion we can draw when the answer comes? Romans 8:28-29: "And we
know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who
love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He
foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren."

OF the offices of the Holy Spirit,
one that leads us most deeply into the understanding of His place in the
Divine economy of grace, and into the mystery of the Holy Trinity, is
the work He does as the Spirit of prayer. We have the Father to whom we
pray, and who hears prayer. We have the Son through whom we pray, and
through whom, in union with whom, we receive and really appropriate the
answer. And we have the Holy Spirit in whom we pray, who prays in us
according to the will of God, with such deeply hidden, unutterable
sighings, that God has to search the hearts to know what is the mind of
the Spirit. Just as wonderful and real as is the Divine work of God on
the Throne, graciously hearing, and, by his mighty power, effectually
answering prayer; just as Divine as is the work of the Son interceding
and securing and transmitting the answer from above, is the work of the
Holy Spirit in us in the prayer which waits and obtains the answer. The
intercession within is as Divine as the intercession above. Let us try
and understand why this should be so, and what it teaches.

In the creation of the world we see how it was the work of the Spirit to
put Himself into contact with the dark and lifeless matter of chaos, and
by His quickening energy to impart to it the power of life and
fruitfulness. it was only after it had been thus vitalized by Him, that
the Word of God gave it form, and called forth all the different types
of life and beauty we now see. So, too, again in the creation of man it
was the Spirit that was breathed into the body that had been formed from
the ground, and that thus united itself with what would otherwise be
dead matter. Even so, in the person of Jesus it is the Spirit through
whose work a body was prepared for Him, through whom His body again was
quickened from the grave, as it is through Him that our bodies are the
temples of God, and the very members of our body the members of Christ.
We think of the Spirit in connection with the spiritual nature of the
Divine Being, far removed from the grossness and feebleness of matter;
we forget that it is the very work of the Spirit specially to unite
Himself with what is material, to lift it up into His own Spirit nature,
and so to develop what will be the highest type of perfection, a
spiritual body.

This view of the Spirit's work is essential to the understanding of the
place He takes in the Divine work of redemption. In each part of that
work there is a special place assigned to each of the Three Persons of
the Holy Trinity. In the Father we have the unseen God, the Author of
all. In the Son God revealed, made manifest, and brought nigh; He is the
Form of God. In the Spirit of God we have the Indwelling God: the Power
of God dwelling in human body and working in it what the Father and the
Son have for us. The weakness and humiliation, yea, the very grossness
of the flesh is the sphere for the operation of the Holy Spirit. Not
only in the individual, but in the Church as a whole, what the Father
has purposed, and the Son has procured, can be appropriated and take
effect in the members of Christ who are still here in the flesh, only
through the continual intervention and active operation of the Holy
Spirit.

This is specially true of intercessory prayer. The coming of the kingdom
of God, the increase of grace and knowledge and holiness in believers,
their growing devotion to God's work and power for that work, the
effectual working of God's power on the unconverted through the means of
grace,---all this waits to come to us from God through Christ. But it
cannot come except as it is looked for and desired, asked and expected,
believed and hoped for. And this is now the wonderful position the Holy
Ghost occupies, that to Him has been assigned the task of preparing the
body of Christ to reach out and receive and hold fast what has been
provided in the fulness of Christ the Head. For the communication of the
Father's love and blessing, the Son and the Spirit must both work. The
Son receives from the Father, reveals and brings nigh, as it were,
descends from above; the Spirit from within wakens the soul to come out
and meet its Lord. As indispensable as the unceasing intercession of
Christ above, asking and receiving from the Father, is the unceasing
intercession of the Spirit within, asking and accepting from the Son
what the Father gives.

Very wonderful is the light that is cast upon this holy mystery by the
words of our text. In the life of faith and prayer there are operations
of the Spirit in which the word of God is made clear to our
understanding, and our faith knows to express what it needs and ask. But
there are also operations of the Spirit, deeper down than thoughts or
feelings, where He works desires and yearnings in our spirit, in the
secret springs of life and being, which God only can discover and
understand. Of this nature is the real thirst for God Himself, the
Living God, the longing to know the love ' that passeth knowledge; and
to be ' filled with all the fulness of God,' the hope in ' Him who is
able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask think; even ' what
hath not entered the heart of man to conceive.' When these aspirations
indeed take possession of us, we begin to pray for what cannot be
expressed, and our only comfort is then that the Spirit prays with His
unutterable yearnings in a region and a language which the Heart
Searcher alone knows and understands.

To the Corinthians Paul says, ' I will pray with the spirit, and I will
pray with the understanding also.' Under the influence of the moving of
the Holy Spirit and His miraculous gifts, their danger was to neglect
the understanding. Our danger in these latter days is in the opposite
direction: to pray with the understanding is easy and universal We need
to be reminded that, with the prayer with the understanding, there must
come the prayer with the Spirit, the 'praying in the Holy Spirit' (Jude
20; Eph. 6:18). We need to give its due place to each of the twofold
operations of the Spirit God's Word must dwell in us richly; our faith
must seek to hold it clearly and intelligently, and to plead it in
prayer. To have the words of Christ abiding in us, filling life and
conduct, is one of the secrets of acceptable prayer. And yet we must
always remember that in the inner sanctuary of our being, in the region
of the unutterable and inconceivable (1 Cor. 2:6), the Spirit prays for
us what we do not know and cannot express. As we grow in the
apprehension of the divinity of that Holy Spirit who dwells within, and
the reality of His breathing within us, we shall recognise how
infinitely beyond the conceptions of our mind must be that Divine hunger
with which He draws us heavenward. We shall feel the need of cultivating
not only the activity of faith, which seeks to grasp and obey God's
word, and from that to learn to pray, but its deep passivity too. As we
pray we shall remember how infinitely above our conception is God and
the spirit-world into which by prayer we enter. Let us believe and
rejoice that where heart and flesh fail, there God is the strength of
our heart, there His Holy Spirit within us in the inmost sanctuary of
our spirit, within the veil, does His unceasing work of intercession,
and prays according to God within us. As we pray, let us at times
worship in holy stillness, and yield ourselves to that Blessed
Paraclete, who alone, who truly is, the Spirit of Supplication'

' Because He maketh intercession for the saints: Why does the apostle
not say for us; as he had said, ' We know not how to pray as we ought'?
The expression, the saints, is a favourite one with Paul, where he
thinks of the Church, either in one country or throughout the world. it
is the special work of the Spirit, as dwelling in every member, '
Mystics will, on the one hand, take their stand on the incomprehensible
intercession of the Spirit, without there being anything which would
admit of being apprehended even by faith. Schoolmen, on the other hand,
depend too much on that which has been reduced to logical definitions,
and obscure to themselves their dim perception of the incomprehensible,
by putting over it the veil of their multifarious definitions. Paul
keeps the golden mean between that which we may know by faith and that
which transcends all knowledge, when the Spirit alone, in accordance
with the inmost purport of creation, knows what we pray. Both that which
we utter in words of faith: which we understand, and the unutterable
things of the Spirit, must co-exist in the heart, if the heart is to be
stablished.'---Steinhofer on Rom. 8:26. to make the body realize its
unity. As selfishness disappears, and the believer becomes more truly
spiritual-minded, and he feels himself more identified with the body as
a whole, he sees how its health and prosperity will be his own, and he
learns what it is to 'pray at all seasons in the Spirit, watching
thereunto in all perseverance for all saints.' it is as we give up
ourselves to this work, in a large-heartedness which takes in all the
Church of God, that the Spirit. will have free scope and will delight to
do His work of intercession for the saints in us. it is specially in
intercessory prayer that we may count upon the deep, unutterable, but
all-prevailing intercession of the Spirit.

What a privilege I to be the temple out of which the Holy Spirit cries
to the Father His unceasing Abba! and offers His unutterable
intercession, too deep for words, What blessedness! that as the Eternal
Son dwelt in the flesh in Jesus of Nazareth, and prayed to the Father as
man, that even so the Eternal Spirit should dwell in us, sinful flesh,
to train us to speak with the Father even as the Son did. Who would not
yield himself to this blessed Spirit, to be made fit to take a share in
that mighty Intercession work through which alone the Kingdom of God can
be revealed? The path is open, and invites all. Let the Holy Spirit have
complete possession. Let Him fill you. Let Him be your life. Believe in
the possibility of His making your very personality and consciousness
the seat of His in being. Believe in the certainty of His working
(Andrew Murray. The Spirit of Christ)

The Apostle Paul was writing to a tried and afflicted people, and one of
his objects was to remind them of the rivers of comfort which were
flowing near at hand. He first of all stirred up their pure minds by way
of remembrance as to their sonship,—for saith he "as many as are led by
the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." They were, therefore,
encouraged to take part and lot with Christ, the elder brother, with
whom they had become joint heirs; and they were exhorted to suffer with
him, that they might afterwards be glorified with him. All that they
endured came from a Father's hand, and this should comfort them. A
thousand sources of joy are opened in that one blessing of adoption.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have
been begotten into the family of grace.

When Paul had alluded to that consoling subject he turned to the next
ground of comfort—namely, that we are to be sustained under present
trial by hope. There is an amazing glory in reserve for us, and though
as yet we cannot enter upon it, but in harmony with the whole creation
must continue to groan and travail, yet the hope itself should minister
strength to us, and enable us patiently to bear "these light
afflictions, which are but for a moment." This also is a truth full of
sacred refreshment: hope sees a crown in reserve, mansions in readiness,
and Jesus himself preparing a place for us, and by the rapturous sight
she sustains the soul under the sorrows of the hour. Hope is the grand
anchor by whose means we ride out the present storm.

The apostle then turns to a third source of comfort, namely, the abiding
of the Holy Spirit in and with the Lord's people. He uses the word
"likewise" to intimate that in the same manner as hope sustains the
soul, so does the Holy Spirit strengthen us under trial. Hope operated
spiritually upon our spiritual faculties, and so does the Holy Spirit,
in some mysterious way, divinely operate upon the new-born faculties of
the believer, so that he is sustained under his infirmities. In his
light shall we see light: I pray, therefore, that we may be helped of
the Spirit while we consider his mysterious operations, that we may not
fall into error or miss precious truth through blindness of heart.

The text speaks of "our infirmities," or as many translators put it in
the singular—of "our infirmity." By this is intended our affliction, and
the weakness which trouble discovers in us. The Holy Spirit helps us to
bear the infirmity of our body and of our mind; he helps us to bear our
cross, whether it be physical pain, or mental depression, or spiritual
conflict, or slander, or poverty, or persecution. He helps our
infirmity; and with a helper so divinely strong we need not fear for the
result. God's grace will be sufficient for us; his strength will be made
perfect in weakness.

I think, dear friends, you will all admit that if a man can pray, his
trouble is at once lightened. When we feel that we have power with God
and can obtain anything we ask for at his hands, then our difficulties
cease to oppress us. We take our burden to our heavenly Father and tell
it out in the accents of childlike confidence, and we come away quite
content to bear whatever his holy will may lay upon us. Prayer is a
great outlet for grief; it draws up the sluices, and abates the swelling
flood, which else might be too strong for us. We bathe our wound in the
lotion of prayer, and the pain is lulled, the fever is removed. We may
be brought into such perturbation of mind, and perplexity of heart, that
we do not know how to pray. We see the mercy-seat, and we perceive that
God will hear us: we have no doubt about that, for we know that we are
his own favoured children, and yet we hardly know what to desire. We
fall into such heaviness of spirit, and entanglement of thought, that
the one remedy of prayer, which we have always found to be unfailing,
appears to be taken from us. Here, then, in the nick of time, as a very
present help in time of trouble, comes in the Holy Spirit. He draws near
to teach us how to pray, and in this way he helps our infirmity,
relieves our suffering, and enables us to bear the heavy burden without
fainting under the load.

At this time our subjects for consideration shall be, firstly, the help
which the Holy Spirit gives; secondly, the prayers which he inspires;
and thirdly, the success which such prayers ore certain to obtain.

I. First, then, let us consider THE HELP WHICH THE HOLY GHOST GIVES.

The help which the Holy Ghost renders to us meets the weakness which we
deplore. As I have already said, if in time of trouble a man can pray,
his burden loses its weight. If the believer can take anything and
everything to God, then he learns to glory in infirmity, and to rejoice
in tribulation; but sometimes we are in such confusion of mind that we
know not what we should pray for as we ought. In a measure, through our
ignorance, we never know what we should pray for until we are taught of
the Spirit of God, but there are times when this beclouding of the soul
is dense indeed, and we do not even know what would help us out of our
trouble if we could obtain it. He see the disease, but the name of the
medicine is not known to us. We look over the many things which we might
ask for of the Lord, and we feel that each of them would be helpful, but
that none of them would precisely meet our case. For spiritual blessings
which we know to be according to the divine will we could ask with
confidence, but perhaps these would not meet our peculiar circumstances.
There are other things for which we are allowed to ask, but we scarcely
know whether, if we had them, they would really serve our turn, and we
also feel a diffidence as to praying for them. In praying for temporal
things we plead with measured voices, ever referring our petition for
revision to the will of the Lord. Moses prayed that he might enter
Canaan, but God denied him; and the man that was healed asked our Lord
that he might be with him, but he received for answer, "Go home to thy
friends." We pray evermore on such matters with this reserve,
"Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." At times this very
spirit of resignation appears to increase our spiritual difficulty, for
we do not wish to ask for anything that would be contrary to the mind of
God and yet we must ask for something. We are reduced to such straits
that we must pray, but what shall be the particular subject of prayer we
cannot for a while make out. Even when ignorance and perplexity are
removed, we know not what we should pray for "as we ought." When we know
the matter of prayer, we yet fail to pray in a right manner. We ask, but
we are afraid that we shall not have, because we do not exercise the
thought, or the faith, which we judge to be essential to prayer. We
cannot at times command even the earnestness which is the life of
supplication: a torpor steals over us, our heart is chilled, our hand is
numbed, and we cannot wrestle with the angel. We know what to pray for
as to objects, but we do not know what to pray for "as we ought" it is
the manner of the prayer which perplexes us, even when the matter is
decided upon. How can I pray? My mind wanders: I chatter like a crane; I
roar like a beast in pain; I moan in the brokenness of my heart, but oh,
my God, I know not what it is my inmost spirit needs; or if I know it, I
know not how to frame my petition aright before thee. I know not how to
open my lips in thy majestic presence: I am so troubled that I cannot
speak. My spiritual distress robs me of the power to pour out my heart
before my God. Now, beloved, it is in such a plight as this that the
Holy Ghost aids us with his divine help. and hence he is "a very present
help in time of trouble."

Coming to our aid in our bewilderment he instructs us. This is one of
his frequent operations upon the mind of the believer: "he shall teach
you all things." He instructs us as to our need, and as to the promises
of God which refer to that need. He shows us where our deficiencies are,
what our sins are, and what our necessities are; he sheds a light upon
our condition, and makes us feel deeply our helplessness, sinfulness,
and dire poverty; and then he casts the same light upon the promises of
the Word, and lays home to the heart that very text which was intended
to meet the occasion—the precise promise which was framed with foresight
of our present distress. In that light he makes the promise shine in all
its truthfulness, certainty, sweetness, and suitability, so that we,
poor trembling sons of men, dare take that word into our mouth which
first came out of God's mouth, and then come with it as an argument, and
plead it before the throne of the heavenly grace. Our prevalence in
prayer lies in the plea, "Lord, do as thou hast said." How greatly we
ought to value the Holy Spirit, because when we are in the dark he gives
us light, and when our perplexed spirit is so befogged and beclouded
that it cannot see its own need, and cannot find out the appropriate
promise in the Scriptures, the Spirit of God comes in and teaches us all
things, and brings all things to our remembrance, whatsoever our Lord
has told us. He guides us in prayer, and thus he helps our infirmity.

But the blessed Spirit does more than this, he will often direct the
mind to the special subject of prayer. He dwells within us as a
counsellor, and points out to us what it is we should seek at the hands
of God. We do not know why it is so, but we sometimes find our minds
carried as by a strong under current into a particular line of prayer
for some one definite object. It is not merely that our judgment leads
us in that direction, though usually the Spirit of God acts upon us by
enlightening our judgment, but we often feel an unaccountable and
irresistible desire rising again and again within our heart, and this so
presses upon us, that we not only utter the desire before God at our
ordinary times for prayer, but we feel it crying in our hearts all the
day long, almost to the supplanting of all other considerations. At such
times we should thank God for direction and give our desire a clear
road: the Holy Spirit is granting us inward direction as to how we
should reckon upon good success in our pleadings. Such guidance will the
Spirit give to each of you if you will ask him to illuminate you. He
will guide you both negatively and positively. Negatively, he will
forbid you to pray for such and such a thing, even as Paul essayed to go
into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered him not: and, on other hand, he
will cause you to hear a cry within your soul which shall guide your
petitions, even as he made Paul hear the cry from Macedonia, saying,
"Come over and help us." The Spirit teaches wisely, as no other teacher
can do. Those who obey his promptings shall not walk in darkness. He
leads the spiritual eye to take good and steady aim at the very centre
of the target, and thus we hit the mark in our pleadings.

Nor is this all, for the spirit of God is not sent merely to guide and
help our devotion, but he himself "maketh intercession for us" according
to the will of God. By this expression it cannot be meant that the Holy
Spirit ever groans or personally prays; but that he excites intense
desire and created unutterable groanings in us, and these are ascribed
to him. Even as Solomon built the temple because he superintended and
ordained all, and yet I know not that he ever fashioned a timber or
prepared a stone, so doth the Holy Spirit pray and plead within us by
leading us to pray and plead. This he does by arousing our desires. The
Holy Spirit has a wonderful power over renewed hearts, as much power as
the skillful minstrel hath over the strings among which he lays his
accustomed hand. The influences of the Holy Ghost at times pass through
the soul like winds through an Eolian harp, creating and inspiring sweet
notes of gratitude and tones of desire, to which we should have been
strangers if it had not been for his divine visitation. He can arouse us
from our lethargy, he can warm us out of our lukewarmness, he can enable
us when we are on our knees to rise above the ordinary routine of prayer
into that victorious importunity against which nothing can stand. He can
lay certain desires so pressingly upon our hearts that we can never rest
till they are fulfilled. He can make the zeal for God's house to eat us
up, and the passion for God's glory to be like a fire within our bones;
and this is one part of that process by which in inspiring our prayers
he helps our infirmity. True Advocate is he, and Comforter most
effectual. Blessed be his name.

The Holy Spirit also divinely operates in the strengthening of the faith
of believers. That faith is at first of his creating, and afterwards it
is of his sustaining and increasing: and oh, brothers and sisters, have
you not often felt your faith rise in proportion to your trials? Have
you not, like Noah's ark, mounted towards heaven as the flood deepened
around you? You have felt as sure about the promise as you felt about
the trial. The affliction was, as it were, in your very bones, but the
promise was also in your very heart. You could not doubt the affliction,
for you smarted under it, but you might almost as soon have doubted the
divine help, for your confidence was firm and unmoved. The greatest
faith is only what God has a right to expect from us, yet do we never
exhibit it except as the Holy Ghost strengthens our confidence, and
opens up before us the covenant with all its seals and securities. He it
is that leads our soul to cry, "though my house be not so with God, yet
hath he made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and
sure." Blessed be the Divine Spirit then, that since faith is essential
to prevailing prayer, he helps us in supplication by increasing our
faith. Without faith prayer cannot speed, for he that wavereth is like a
wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed, and such an one may not
expect anything of the Lord; happy are we when the Holy Spirit removes
our wavering, and enables us like Abraham to believe without staggering,
knowing full well that he who has promised is able also to perform.

By three figures I will endeavour to describe the work of the Spirit of
God in this matter, though they all fall short, and indeed all that I
can say must fall infinitely short of the glory of his work. The actual
mode of his working upon the mind we may not attempt to explain; it
remains a mystery, and it would be an unholy intrusion to attempt to
remove the veil. There is no difficulty in our believing that as one
human mind operates upon another mind, so does the Holy Spirit influence
our spirits. We are forced to use words if we would influence our
fellow-men, but the Spirit of God can operate upon the human mind more
directly, and communicate with it in silence. Into that matter, however,
we will not dive lest we intrude where our knowledge would be drowned by
our presumption.

My illustrations do not touch the mystery, but set forth the grace. The
Holy Spirit acts to his people somewhat as a prompter to a reciter. A
man has to deliver a piece which he has learned; but his memory is
treacherous, and therefore somewhere out of sight there is a prompter,
so that when the speaker is at a loss and might use a wrong word, a
whisper is heard, which suggests the right one. When the speaker has
almost lost the thread of his discourse he turns his ear, and the
prompter gives him the catch-word and aids his memory. If I may be
allowed the simile, I would say that this represents in part the work of
the Spirit of God in us,—suggesting to us the right desire, and bringing
all things to our remembrance whatsoever Christ has told us. In prayer
we should often come to a dead stand, but he incites, suggests, and
inspires, and so we go onward. In prayer we might grow weary, but the
Comforter encourages and refreshes us with cheering thoughts. When,
indeed, we are in our bewilderment almost driven to give up prayer, the
whisper of his love drops a live coal from off the altar into our soul,
and our hearts glow with greater ardour than before. Regard the Holy
Spirit as your prompter, and let your ear be opened to his voice.

But he is much more than this. Let me attempt a second simile: he is as
an advocate to one in peril at law. Suppose that a poor man had a great
law-suit, touching his whole estate, and he was forced personally to go
into court and plead his own cause, and speak up for his rights. If he
were an uneducated man he would be in a poor plight. An adversary in the
court might plead against him, and overthrow him, for he could not
answer him. This poor man knows very little about law, and is quite
unable to meet his cunning opponent. Suppose one who was perfect in the
law should take up his cause warmly, and come and live with him, and use
all his knowledge so as to prepare his case for him, draw up his
petitions for him, and fill his mouth with arguments,—would not that be
a grand relief? This counsellor would suggest the line of pleading,
arrange the arguments, and put them into right courtly language. When
the poor man was baffled by a question asked in court, he would run home
and ask his adviser, and he would tell him exactly how to meet the
objector. Suppose, too, that when he had to plead with the judge
himself, this advocate at home should teach him how to behave and what
to urge, and encourage him to hope that he would prevail,—would not this
be a great boon? Who would be the pleader in such a case? The poor
client would plead, but still, when he won the suit, he would trace it
all to the advocate who lived at home, and gave him counsel: indeed, it
would be the advocate pleading for him, even while he pleaded himself.
This is an instructive emblem of a great fact. Within this narrow house
of my body, this tenement of clay, if I be a true believer, there dwells
the Holy Ghost, and when I desire to pray I may ask him what I should
pray for as I ought, and he will help me. He will write the prayers
which I ought to offer upon the tablets of my heart, and I shall see
them there, and so I shall be taught how to plead. It will be the
Spirit's own self pleading in me, and by me, and through me, before the
throne of grace. What a happy man in his law-suit would such a poor man
be, and how happy are you and I that we have the Holy Ghost to be our
Counsellor!

Yet one more illustration: it is that of a father aiding his boy.
Suppose it to be a time of war centuries back. Old English warfare was
then conducted by bowmen to a great extent. Here is a youth who is to be
initiated in the art of archery, and therefore he carries a bow. It is a
strong bow, and therefore very hard to draw; indeed, it requires more
strength than the urchin can summon to bend it. See how his father
teaches him. "Put your right hand here, my boy, and place your left hand
so. Now pull"; and as the youth pulls, his father's hands are on his
hands, and the bow is drawn. The lad draws the bow: ay, but it is quite
as much his father, too. We cannot draw the bow of prayer alone.
Sometimes a bow of steel is not broken by our hands, for we cannot even
bend it; and then the Holy Ghost puts his mighty hand over ours, and
covers our weakness so that we draw; and lo, what splendid drawing of
the bow it is them! The bow bends so easily we wonder how it is; away
flies the arrow, and it pierces the very centre of the target, for he
who giveth have won the day, but it was his secret might that made us
strong, and to him be the glory of it.

Thus have I tried to set forth the cheering fact that the Spirit helps
the people of God.

II. Our second subject is THE PRAYER WHICH THE HOLY SPIRIT INSPIRES,
or that part of prayer which is especially and peculiarly the work of
the Spirit of God. The text says, "The Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." It is not the Spirit
that groans, but we that groan; but as I have shown you, the Spirit
excited the emotion which causes us to groan.

It is clear then the prayers which are indited in us by the spirit of
God are those which arise from our inmost soul. A man's heart is moved
when he groans. A groan is a matter about which there is no hypocrisy. A
groan cometh not from the lips, but from the heart. A groan then is a
part of prayer which we owe to the Holy Ghost, and the same is true of
all the prayer which wells up from the deep fountains of our inner life.
The prophet cried, "My bowels, my bowels, I am pained at my very heart:
my heart maketh a noise in me." This deep ground-swell of desire, this
tidal motion of the life-floods is caused by the Holy Spirit. His work
is never superficial, but always deep and inward.

Such prayers will rise within us when the mind is far too troubled to
let us speak. We know not what we should pray for as we ought, and then
it is that we groan, or utter some other inarticulate sound. Hezekiah
said, "like a crane or a swallow did I chatter." The psalmist said, "I
am so troubled that I cannot I have roared by reason of the disquietness
of my heart"; but he added, "Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my
groaning is not hid from thee." The sighing of the prisoner surely
cometh up into the ears of the Lord. There is real prayer in these
"groanings that cannot be uttered." It is the power of the Holy Ghost in
us which creates all real prayer, even that which takes the form of a
groan because the mind is incapable, by reason of its bewilderment and
grief, of clothing its emotion in words. I pray you never think lightly
of the supplications of your anguish. Rather judge that such prayers are
like Jabez, of whom it is written, that "he was more honourable than his
brethren, because his mother bare him with sorrow." That which is thrown
up from the depth of the soul, when it is stirred with a terrible
tempest, is more precious than pearl or coral, for it is the
intercession of the Holy Spirit.

These prayers are sometimes "groanings that cannot be uttered," because
they concern such great things that they cannot be spoken. I want, my
Lord! I want, I want; I cannot tell thee what I want: but I seem to want
all things. If it were some little thing, my narrow capacity could
comprehend and describe it, but I need all covenant blessings. Thou
knowest what I have need of before I ask thee, and though I cannot go
into each item of my need, I know it to be very great, and such as I
myself can never estimate. I groan, for I can do no more. Prayers which
are the offspring of great desires, sublime aspirations, and elevated
designs are surely the work of the Holy Spirit, and their power within a
man is frequently so great that he cannot find expression for them.
Words fail, and even the sighs which try to embody them cannot be
uttered.

But it may be, beloved, that we groan because we are conscious of the
littleness of our desire, and the narrowness of our faith. The trial,
too. may seem too mean to pray about. I have known what it is to feel as
if I could not pray about a certain matter, and yet I have been obliged
to groan about it. A thorn in the flesh may be as painful a thing as a
sword in the bones, and yet we may go and beseech the Lord thrice about
it, and getting no answer we may feel that we know not what to pray for
as we ought; and yet it makes us groan. Yes, and with that natural groan
there may go up an unutterable groaning of the Holy Spirit. Beloved,
what a different view of prayer God has from that which men think to be
the correct one. You may have seen very beautiful prayers in print, and
you may have heard very charming compositions from the pulpit, but I
trust you have not fallen in love with them. Judge these things rightly.
I pray you never think well of fine prayers, for before the thrice holy
God it ill becomes a sinful suppliant to play the orator. We heard of a
certain clergyman who was said to have given forth "the finest prayer
ever offered to a Boston audience." Just so! The Boston audience
received the prayer, and there it ended. We want the mind of the spirit
in prayer, and not he mind of the flesh. The tail feathers of pride
should be pulled out of our prayers, for they need only the wing
feathers of faith; the peacock feathers of poetical expression are out
of place before the throne of God. Hear me, what remarkably beautiful
language he used in prayer!" "What an intellectual treat his prayer was!
Yes, yes; but God looks at the heart. To him fine language is as
sounding brass or tinkling cymbal, but a groan has music in it. We do
not like groans: our ears are much too delicate to tolerate such dreary
sounds; but not so the great Father of spirits. A Methodist brother
cries, "Amen," and you say, "I cannot bear such Methodistic noise"; no,
but if it comes from the man's heart God can bear it. When you get
upstairs into your chamber this evening to pray, and find you cannot
pray, but have to moan out, "Lord, I am too full of anguish and too
perplexed to pray, hear thou the voice of my roaring," though you reach
to nothing else you will be really praying. When like David we can say,
"I opened my mouth and panted," we are by no means in an ill state of
mind. All fine language in prayer, and especially all intoning or
performing of prayers, must be abhorrent to God; it is little short of
profanity to offer solemn supplication to God after the manner called
"intoning." The sighing of a true heart is infinitely more acceptable,
for it is the work of the Spirit of God.

We may say of the prayers which the Holy Spirit works in us that they
are prayers of knowledge. Notice, our difficulty is that we know not
what we should pray for; but the Holy Spirit does know, and therefore he
helps us by enabling us to pray intelligently, knowing what we are
asking for, so far as this knowledge is needful to valid prayer. The
text speaks "of the mind of the Spirit." What a mind that must be!—the
mind of that Spirit who arranged all the order which now pervades this
earth! There once was chaos and confusion, but the Holy Spirit brooded
over all, and His mind is the originator of that beautiful arrangement
which we so admire in the visible creation. What a mind his must be! The
Holy Spirit's mind is seen in our intercessions when under his sacred
influence we order our case before the Lord, and plead with holy wisdom
for things convenient and necessary. What wise and admirable desires
must those be which the Spirit of Wisdom himself works in us!

Moreover, the Holy Spirit's intercession creates prayers offered in a
proper manner. I showed you that the difficulty is that we know not what
we should pray for "as we ought," and the Spirit meets that difficulty
by making intercession for us in a right manner. The Holy Spirit works
in us humility, earnestness, intensity, importunity, faith, and
resignation, and all else that is acceptable to God in our
supplications. We know not how to mingle these sacred spices in the
incense of prayer. We, if left to ourselves at our very best, get too
much of one ingredient or another, and spoil the sacred compound, but
the Holy Spirit's intercessions have in them such a blessed blending of
all that is good that they come up as a sweet perfume before the Lord.
Spirit-taught prayers are offered as they ought to be. They are his own
intercession in some respects, for we read that the Holy Spirit not only
helps us to intercede but "maketh intercession." It is twice over
declared in our text that he maketh intercession for us; and the meaning
of this I tried to show when I described a father as putting his hands
upon his child's hands. This is something more than helping us to pray,
something more than encouraging us or directing us,—but I venture no
further, except to say that he puts such force of his own mind into our
poor weak thoughts and desires and hopes, that he himself maketh
intercession for us, working in us to will and to pray according to his
good pleasure.

I want you to notice, however, that these intercessions of the Spirit
are only in the saints. "He maketh intercession for us," and "He maketh
intercession for the saints." Does he do nothing for sinners, then? Yes,
he quickens sinners into spiritual life, and he strives with them to
overcome their sinfulness and turn them into the right way; but in the
saints he works with us and enables us to pray after his mind and
according to the will of God. His intercession is not in or for the
unregenerate. O, unbelievers you must first be made saints or you cannot
feel the Spirit's intercession within you. What need we have to go to
Christ for the blessing of the Holy Ghost, which is peculiar to the
children of God, and can only be ours by faith in Christ Jesus! "To as
man as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God";
and to the sons of God alone cometh the Spirit of adoption, and all his
helping grace. Unless we are the sons of God the Holy Spirit's
indwelling shall not be ours: we are shut out from the intercession of
the Holy Ghost, ay, and from the intercession of Jesus too, for he hath
said, "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me."

Thus I have tried to show you the kind of prayer which the Spirit
inspires.

III. Our third and last point is THE SURE SUCCESS OF ALL SUCH
PRAYERS.

All the prayers which the Spirit of God inspires in us must succeed,
because, first, there is a meaning in them which God reads and approves.
When the Spirit of God writes a prayer upon a man's heart, the man
himself may be in such a state of mind that he does not altogether know
what it is. His interpretation of it is a groan, and that is all.
Perhaps he does not even get so far as that in expressing the mind of
the Spirit, but he feels greenings which he cannot utter, he cannot find
a door of utterance for his inward grief. Yet our heavenly Father, who
looks immediately upon the heart, reads what the Spirit of God has
indited there, and does not need even our groans to explain the meaning.
He reads the heart itself: "he knoweth,' says the text, "what is the
mind of the Spirit." The Spirit is one with the Father, and the Father
knows what the Spirit means. The desires which the Spirit prompts may be
too spiritual for such babes in grace as we are actually to describe or
to express, and yet the Spirit writes the desire on the renewed mind,
and the Father sees it. Now that which God reads in the heart and
approves of—for the word to "know" in this case includes approval as
well as the mere act of omniscience—what God sees and approves of in the
heart must succeed. Did not Jesus say, "Your heavenly Father knoweth
that you have need of these things before you ask them"? Did he not tell
us this as an encouragement to believe that we shall receive all needful
blessings? So it is with those prayers which are all broken up, wet with
tears, and discordant with those sighs and inarticulate expressions and
heavings of the bosom, and sobbings of the heart and anguish and
bitterness of spirit, our gracious Lord reads them as a man reads a
book, and they are written in a character which he fully understands. To
give a simple figure: if I were to come into your house I might find
there a little child that cannot yet speak plainly. It cries for
something, and it makes very odd and objectionable noises, combined with
signs and movements, which are almost meaningless to stranger, but his
mother understands him, and attends to his little pleadings. A mother
can translate baby-talk: she comprehends incomprehensible noises. Even
so doth our Father in heaven know all about our poor baby talk, for our
prayer is not much better. He knows and comprehends the cryings, and
meanings, and sighings, and chatterings of his bewildered children. Yea,
a tender mother knows her child's needs before the child knows what it
wants. Perhaps the little one stutters, stammers, and cannot get its
words out, but the mother sees what he would say, and takes the meaning.
Even so we know concerning our great Father:—

He knows the thoughts we mean to
speak,
Ere from our opening lips the break.

Do you therefore rejoice in this,
that because the prayers of the Spirit are known and understood of God,
therefore they will be sure to speed.

The next argument for making us sure that they will speed is this—that
they are "the mind of the Spirit." God the ever blessed is one, and
there can be no division between the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost. These divine persons always work together, and there is a common
desire for the glory of each blessed Person of the Divine Unity, and
therefore it cannot be conceived without profanity, that anything could
be the mind of the Holy Spirit and not be the mind of the Father and the
mind of the Son. The mind of God is one and harmonious; if, therefore,
the Holy Spirit dwells in you, and he move you to any desire, then his
mind is in your prayer, and it is not possible that the eternal Father
should reject your petitions. That prayer which came from heaven will
certainly go back to heaven. If the Holy Ghost prompts it, the Father
must and will accept it, for it is not possible that he should put a
slight upon the ever blessed and adorable Spirit.

But one more word, and that circles the argument, namely, that the work
of the Spirit in the heart is not only the mind of the Spirit which God
knows, but it is also according to the will or mind of God, for he never
maketh intercession in us other than is consistent with the divine will.
Now, the divine will or mind may be viewed two ways. First, there is the
will declared in the proclamations of holiness by the Ten Commandments.
The Spirit of God never prompts us to ask for anything that is unholy or
inconsistent with the precepts of the Lord. Then secondly, there is the
secret mind of God, the will of his eternal predestination and decree,
of which we know nothing; but we do know this, that the Spirit of God
never prompts us to ask anything which is contrary to the eternal
purpose of God. Reflect for a moment: the Holy Spirit knows all the
purposes of God, and when they are about to be fulfilled, he moves the
children of God to pray about them, and so their prayers keep touch and
tally with the divine decrees. Oh would you not pray confidently if you
knew that your prayer corresponded with the sealed book of destiny? We
may safely entreat the Lord to do what he has ordained to do. A carnal
man draws the inference that if God has ordained an event we need not
pray about it, but faith obediently draws the inference that the God who
secretly ordained to give the blessing has openly commanded that we
should pray for it, and therefore faith obediently prays. Coming events
cast their shadows before them, and when God is about to bless his
people his coming favour casts the shadow of prayer over the church.
When he is about to favour an individual he casts the shadow of hopeful
expectation over his soul. Our prayers, let men laugh at them as they
will, and say there is no power in them, are the indicators of the
movement of the wheels of Providence. Believing supplications are
forecasts of the future, He who prayeth in faith is like the seer of
old, he sees that which is to be: his holy expectancy, like a telescope,
brings distant objects near to him. He is bold to declare that he has
the petition which he has asked of God, and he therefore begins to
rejoice and to praise God, even before the blessing has actually
arrived. So it is: prayer prompted by the Holy Spirit is the footfall of
the divine decree.

I conclude by saying, see, my dear hearers, the absolute necessity of
the Holy Spirit, for if the saints know not what they should pray for as
they ought; if consecrated men and women, with Christ suffering in them,
still feel their need of the instruction of the Holy Spirit, how much
more do you who are not saints, and have never given yourselves up to
God, require divine teaching! On, that you would know and feel your
dependence upon the Holy Ghost that he may prompt the once crucified but
now ascended Redeemer that this gift of the Spirit, this promise of the
Father, is shed abroad upon men. May he who comes from Jesus lead you to
Jesus.

And, then O ye people of God, let this last thought abide with you,—what
condescension is this that Divine Person should dwell in you for ever,
and that he should be with you to help your prayers. Listen to me for a
moment. If I read in the Scriptures that in the most heroic acts of
faith God the Holy Ghost helpeth his people, I can understand it; if I
read that in the sweetest music of their songs when they worship best,
and chant their loftiest strains before the Most High God, the Spirit
helpeth them, I can understand it; and even if I hear that in their
wrestling prayers and prevalent intercessions God the Holy Spirit
helpeth them, I can understand it: but I bow with reverent amazement, my
heart sinking into the dust with adoration, when I reflect that God the
Holy Ghost helps us when we cannot speak, but only groan. Yea, and when
we cannot even utter our groanings, he doth not only help us but he
claims as his own particular creation the "groanings that cannot be
uttered." This is condescension indeed! In deigning to help us in the
grief that cannot even vent itself in groaning, he proves himself to be
a true Comforter. O God, my God, thou hast not forsaken me: thou art not
far from me, nor from the voice of my roaring. Thou didst for awhile
leave the Firstborn when he was made a curse for us, so that he cried in
agony, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" but thou wilt not leave one of the
"many brethren" for whom he died: the Spirit shall be with them, and
when they cannot so much as groan he will make intercession for them
with groanings that cannot be uttered. God bless you, my beloved
brethren, and may you feel the Spirit of the Lord thus working in you
and with you. Amen and amen.